The Cornell Dairy Foods Extension Program focuses on supporting the production of safe quality dairy products with specific expertise in microbial spoilage and food safety issues. Our program offers an extensive set of workshops that lead to certificates in fluid milk production, cheese production, ice cream production, and production of yogurt and cultured dairy products.

Many of our course offerings are available as a hybrid online and on-campus for a mixed classroom experience allowing participants to network with others in the dairy industry, as well as a hybrid of online session paired with teleconference sessions to maximize availability and minimize travel cost, and on-site for a more plant-specific training experience. All types of courses allow participants to concentrate on specific topics pertinent to the industry with case studies and exercises designed to apply knowledge. Core courses within our program are offered in a multi-modal format, with 6-8hours of on-line lecture-based content allowing for more a more hands-on focused campus experience.

To further meet the food industry needs, multiple courses focusing on Preventive Controls for Human Food Qualified Individual will continue to be offered in 2022. This course is also available as an on-site training for your workforce.

New courses being offered in 2022 include Intentional Adulteration Vulnerability Assessments/Food Defense, and Artisanal Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts (Advanced Level). Courses returning the training schedule are Environmental Monitoring Programs and Cheese Grading

The 2022 training calendar is available on the Dairy Extension website and includes trainings delivered in Ithaca as well as self-paced online course and hybrid online courses. A course catalogue with detailed descriptions of our Dairy Foods Certificate Program and the associated coursework will be available in early 2022.

Current Certificate Program enrollees may verify their course progress with Program Coordinator, Louise Felker via email at lmf226@cornell.edu. Dairy Extension course credits may also be applied to in-plant Continuing Education programs.

Do you have a program in place to address your documentation and communication to all staff regarding your food safety objectives and performance measures? Do you have resources available to meet food safety objectives?
Are all your food safety practices adopted and maintained? Are your employees informed and held accountable for their food safety and regulatory responsibilities?
Do your employees feel positively encouraged and required to notify management about actual or potential food safety issues?
Are your employees empowered to act to resolve food safety issues within their scope of work?

Please join Dr. Martin Weidmann and, Kim Bukowski for a webinar “Conversation about Food Safety Culture” on January 18^th, 2022 at 2 pm EST.

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0ld-irqjgpHtY3kANwwV93omCxwa7Htcow

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) added to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) several new sections that reference intentional adulteration.  For example, section 418 of the FD&C Act (21 U.S.C. 350g) addresses intentional adulteration in the context of facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food, and that are required to register under section 415 (21 U.S.C. 350d).

The rule, which includes the requirements for food defense measures against intentional adulteration, and related requirements, can be found in 21 CFR part 121.  It requires a qualified individual for evaluating intentional adulteration at food processing plants.

So who is affected by this?    Larger businesses (including any subsidiaries and affiliates) are those that employ at least 500 full-time equivalent employees and whose sale or market value of human food during the previous three-year period average at least $10 million (adjusted for inflation). These larger businesses were required to comply by July 26, 2019.  Small businesses, which employ fewer than 500 full-time equivalent employees, are required to comply by July 27, 2020.  Very small businesses, or those whose sales or market value of human food during the previous three-year period average less than $10 million, are exempt from most of the requirements, but starting July 26, 2021, upon request they must provide documentation to show that they meet the exemption.  The IA rule applies to the owner, operator, or agent in charge of a domestic or foreign food facility that manufactures/processes, packs, or holds food for consumption in the United States and is required to register under section 415 of the FD&C Act, unless one of the exemptions provided in 21 CFR 121.5 applies.

Cornell Course Offering to Meet the Requirements

This course will provide participants with the knowledge to implement the requirements of conducting a vulnerability assessment under the Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food Against Intentional Adulteration (IA) regulation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This course developed by the FSPCA is the “standardized curriculum” recognized by FDA; successfully completing this course is one way to meet the requirements for a “food defense qualified individual” responsible for conducting a vulnerability assessment.

Date:  September 21, 2021

Time:  8:15 AM – 4:30 PM

Location:  Stewarts Processing Plant, Building 2, 461 Church St, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Cost:  $650

Registration link:  https://cals.cornell.edu/dfe-fsma-intentional-adulteration

The Cornell Dairy Extension team offers training across multiple FSMA Rules as well as NYS mandated trainings. In addition to the regularly scheduled courses, the FSMA trainings may be delivered virtually or as a company in-plant specific training.

If you are a domestic or foreign food facility that is required to register with section 415 of the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act you must comply with the requirements for risk-based preventive controls mandated by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) as well as the modernized Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs) of this rule (unless an exemption applies).

The rule requires food facilities to have a food safety plan in place that includes an analysis of hazards and risk-based preventive controls to minimize or prevent the identified hazards.

The regulation requires that certain activities must be completed by a “preventive controls qualified individual” who has “successfully completed training in the development and application of risk‐based preventive controls at least equivalent to that received under a standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by FDA or be otherwise qualified through job experience to develop and apply a food safety system”

We offer this PCQI training several times a year. In 2020-21 we are offering the training live virtually (via Zoom.) This multi-day course fulfills the FDA Requirements for FSMA Qualified Individual Training through the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance and AFDO.

Register for the next virtual live virtual training here: https://cals.cornell.edu/education/degrees-programs/fsma-preventive-controls-human-food-qualified-individual

Food defense is the effort to protect the food supply against intentional contamination due to sabotage, terrorism, counterfeiting, or other illegal, intentionally harmful means. Potential contaminants include biological, chemical and radiological hazards that are generally not found in foods or their production environment. Rather than targeting specific foods or hazards, this rule requires mitigation (risk-reducing) strategies for processes in certain registered food facilities.

We are offering this course at several locations around the state, and we can also come to your facility and perform the training onsite. This course will provide participants with the knowledge to implement the requirements of conducting a vulnerability assessment under the Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food Against Intentional Adulteration (IA) regulation.

To register for the September training:  https://cals.cornell.edu/education/degrees-programs/intentional-adulteration

The Foreign Supplier Verification Program requires importers to perform risk-based foreign supplier verification activities to verify that the food is produced in a manner that provides the same level of public health protection as section 418 (concerning hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls) or 419 (concerning standards for the safe production and harvesting of certain fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities.

The Foreign Supplier Verification course will fulfill the FDA Requirements for Foreign Supplier Verification. The Verification Programs are certified through the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance and AFDO.

We are qualified to offer this course and will be offering it in 2022. Please contact us for potential dates.

Two important things necessary in any food business are individuals with strong leadership skills and the ability to create strong SOP documents. These needs can be met through our Leadership Skills for Success and SOP and Technical Writing workshops. Which will both be opening in June. Leadership Skills for Success will be live via zoom, and SOP and Technical Writing will have a self-paced online portion that will open on June 15^th, with a live session on July 22^nd. Read more about these upcoming courses below. More information on courses can be found by visiting our calendar or reaching out to us.

Leadership Skills for Success, June 15-18: Master critical communication and leadership skills to effectively manage employees, establish priorities and delegate responsibilities while building awareness of team dynamics and how to engage employees through group problem-solving and decision making. Gain the commitment of others and add value to your organization by being clear about the results you want to achieve, the environment you want to create, and how you will develop and deploy talent. Become an effective leader with the ability to build relationships and manage workplace communications to be heard and understood by others while enhancing employee engagement and ensuring alignment and collaboration amongst members.

SOP and Technical Writing, online opens June 15, live session on July 22: This course presents the process of writing and maintaining Standard Operating Procedures for both regulatory compliance and everyday employee usage. Learning objectives include: (1) Systems, (2) Tense and Word Choice, (3) Writing Effective Documents, (4) Hands-on Writing Sessions, (5) Reviewing and Revising, and (6) Compliance.

High Temperature Short Time Pasteurization, July 13-15: This workshop is designed for pasteurizer operators, but is beneficial to all involved with milk pasteurization, including production, QA/QC & maintenance personnel.

The course is instructed by industry experts and representatives from NYS Agriculture & Markets and provides an overview of the design, operation, cleaning and maintenance of HTST systems.

All required regulatory tests for HTST pasteurizers will be discussed and presented in a hands-on format to meet the training requirements for performing HTST system testing under the NY State Broken Seal Policy. Additional topics include UHT systems, dairy microbiology, product safety, and cleaning and sanitizing.